LETTERS: Congress must address poverty

If inequality and the well-being of hardworking Americans are truly important to the new Congress, they are now in a position to prove it.

More than 43 million people in this country still live below the poverty line, and that number would be more than twice as high were it not for federal anti-poverty policies, according to the Census Bureau. Why then would the new Congress be gearing up to attack some of these programs?

I hope we can count on our members of Congress to reject any proposals that would take us backwards — whether gutting SNAP by turning it into a “block grant” or reducing access to Medicaid. Instead they should focus on doing some good, like expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit to workers not raising children, who are currently taxed deeper into poverty.

Now more than ever, we need to focus on making things better for hardworking Americans. Dismantling our safety net is not the way to do that.